A.I. in games? Important highly, for very obvious reasons.

A.I. in real use? I'm not to comfortable with sentient AI for reasons many movies have made. I'm okay with limited faux AI, or things that mimic 'real' behaviour, but not true A.I.

In games, AI is getting more advanced, but it will take a while before we get to "realistic" AI. In real life, its next to impossible. Machines can only do what we program it to do, its impossible for it to become sentient (I think).